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According to police, 29-year-old Waleska Velasquez, a teacher at Miami Jackson Senior High, was involved in a yearlong sexual tryst with a 16-year-old male student. Velasquez apparently lavished the boy with cash and gifts. She was arrested today and charged with three counts of unlawful sexual contact with a minor.
According to this fundraising page, Velasquez was a science teacher at Miami Jackson who specialized in teaching children with mental handicaps and developmental disabilities.
NBC Miami reports the student in question was taught by Velasquez, though there’s no indication yet the student was in a special diploma program. She first met the student in 2009 and continued the relationship until 2010. She gave the child cash and gifts, and detectives also found handwritten letters and nude pictures of herself that she had sent to the boy.
She also served on the school’s Education Excellence Advisory Committee.
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Velasquez has confessed to an improper relationship and remains in jail on $7,500 bond.
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